The Capitol Dome

Fig. 8. Discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto A.D. 1541, William Powell, 1853 artist William H. Powell undertook for the U.S. Capitol, the first being his Discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto A.D. 1541 (fig. 8), which was completed in 1853 and placed in the Capitol's Rotunda, the last of the eight large-scale history paintings recording America's discovery and early history. Both works feature bodies of water connected to America's westward expansion, and so refer to the concept of Manifest Destiny—the idea that the nation was divinely ordained to expand to the Pacific—and to the many political interests supporting it in this era. In his 1867 Book of the Artists, Henry Tuckerman noted that the De Soto commission was awarded to Powell "rather in deference to his Western origin than be- cause of priority of claim in point of rank or age." 14 Although Powell claimed otherwise, Congress granted the commission reluctantly, and critical response to the painting was decidedly mixed; Putnam's Magazine, for example, noted its "overly melodramatic style," claiming that "the picture is in every respect bad, and unworthy of being placed in a national capi- tal." 15 Moreover, the entire project of history painting—with its emphasis on noble themes, figures, and actions represented in a European, Grand-Manner-derived style, as exemplified by works such as Benjamin West's The Death of General Wolfe (1771)—was problematic in the United States from its begin- nings, due in part to its European origins, association with the monarchical tradition, and ongoing debate over the propri- ety of federal support for the arts. John Trumbull's well-doc- umented struggles to win government patronage and public support for his Revolutionary War series also illustrate these challenges to establishing the Grand Manner history painting tradition in the United States. 16 In 1857, Powell was commissioned to paint Perry's victory at Lake Erie for the Ohio statehouse. His contract stipulated "completion of the work within five years, at a cost of not more than $5,000," but the painting was not completed until early 1865. 17 Although already overdue in Ohio, Powell exhibited it in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in March of that year, in hopes of securing another congressional commission and renegotiating his original fee. 18 Since the Joint Committee on the Library's description of the commission for the Senate's east staircase specified only a work "illustrative of some naval victory," why was Lake Erie chosen over other historically important and strategically vital battles? 19 For whatever reason—the recent presence of Ohio's Perry's Victory at the Capitol, the influence of Powell's advo- cates in Congress, the growing population and political clout of the western territories—and despite problematic aspects of Powell's De Soto commission, it appears to have been under- stood that he would repeat the subject of Perry's victory on the ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL 17 THE CAPITOL DOME

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